9/11: Frequent flier rerouted when news of attacks hit

Suddenly, the woman’s face went white, and she exclaimed, “You’re kidding me!” That’s how Mike Hovan of Dover recalls finding out about Sept. 11 while aboard an airplane from London bound for Pittsburgh. It would be four days before he reached American soil.

Suddenly, the woman’s face went white, and she exclaimed, “You’re kidding me!”

That’s how Mike Hovan of Dover recalls finding out about Sept. 11 while aboard an airplane from London bound for Pittsburgh. It would be four days before he reached American soil.

Passengers had just been notified that there were “issues with air traffic control, and that we would be landing for a bit in Newfoundland,” the easternmost province of Canada, he said.

“They didn’t update us,” he said. “We found out when the woman sitting next to me used the airplane phone to call a relative to say she was going to be late in arriving. I saw her face go white and she looked like she was going to be ill. She said, ‘You’re kidding me! The second plane had just hit the World Trade Center.”

She was traveling with her husband and two children.

“She put the phone down and told her husband,” Hovan recalled. “Other people overheard, and suddenly there was a crowd around our row and then word spread through the whole plane.”

Hovan was then president of Edgetech I.G. in Cambridge. He was returning from the company’s operations in England. Within the past year the former division of Lauren International in New Philadelphia has been sold to Quanex, and Hovan is now senior vice president of sales and marketing of Quanex’s Engineered Products Group.

“All planes were told immediately to land,” Hovan recalled. “They had flagged some of the flights from London and Paris for concern. All of the planes landed in Newfoundland.”

The people at the airport and others in Newfoundland “made the absolute best of a lousy situation. By the time we finally got off plane, it was nearly 20 hours from the start of the trip. We’d been in flight for about six hours, then we were the last plane to deplane. They had planes all over the place. They were off-loading thousands of people.”

Every passengers was checked by security personnel as they exited the plane and transferred to a bus. He said that once the passengers arrived at where they would stay, then they saw news coverage of the what had happened.

“That was only thing that I faulted the airline on — they didn’t give us any update,” he said. “I understand the concern, but I thought it was kind of lousy for us to find out through others what had happened.”

Hovan said that all the passengers had to go through security again when they boarded the bus to get back on the plane days later.

“I remember flying into Pittsburgh,” he said. “We got there about 2 a.m., and there was a television news crew that was shoving their camera in the face of people arriving there. They were asking people what they thought about the new security measures. I told them that if you need to do things to protect the airport, that’s fine.”

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Hovan believes that “it’s important not only to remember the tragedy of Sept. 11, but also some of the human characteristics and those who were there to help us and the United States. As we get further away from that day, it seems that there is some forgetting of the sacrifices others made.”

He said everyone remembers the heroics of the New York City Fire Department, but far fewer people remember that “the people in Canada took us in and found housing for us within 12 hours. They moved mountains to accommodate people, and it’s worth remembering what they did for us. It’s good for us to remember, if they need help some day.”

Hovan said that international travel is still required for his job, as with many others.

“You’re just more aware on airplanes than before Sept. 11,” he said. “There are situations that you can’t help but feel hyper-sensitive. That comes as much from being an American, not just because of Sept. 11. Depending on where you’re at in world and what year, you either face respect or disdain and too often it’s disdain.”

He said that when traveling outside the United States “you definitely try to downplay that you’re an American, if at all possible. It’s tough to do in some cases, but you try not to dress like a tourist — the stereotype of ballcaps, T-shirts and shorts. I wear clothes that I bought in Europe, with European labels, such as French or Italian, instead of American labels. Pointy-toe shoes are much more popular in Europe.”

As the nation marks the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Hovan said “the further we get away from Sept. 11, that memory is waning and the security requirements at airports seem to be getting more relaxed. It’s taking less time than in 2002 or 2003. In my opinion, it’s becoming less of an issue these days. You can plan on at least an extra 15 minutes per trip on a domestic or international flight. Still, if you take four trips per month, that adds up to an hour right there.”